Men's tennis prepares for USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championships

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The Middle Tennessee men’s tennis team is headed east for the 2011 USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championships Oct. 20-24 in Knoxville, Tenn. Six Blue Raiders will compete in both singles and doubles competition, splitting time between the Knoxville Racquet Club and the University of Tennessee’s Goodfriend Tennis Center.

The individual regional tournament features schools from Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana. The singles draw features 128 players from the region, and the doubles draw is 61 teams strong. The singles champion must win seven consecutive matches in five days to hoist the trophy. For first-round losers, there will be a full 64-player singles backdraw.

The singles and doubles main draw winners from each ITA region advance to the exclusive 32-player singles and 16-team doubles fields at the USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships in Flushing, N.Y.

Sophomore Ben Davis earned a No. 7 seed for the tournament and will face ETSU’s Roger Ordeig on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. Senior Matthew Langley and freshmen Ettore Zito, Marlon Brand, Cameron Dickerson and Forrest Edwards also will compete on Thursday.

For more information on the tournament, click here.

Blue Raiders’ Thursday Schedule (all times Central)
Knoxville Racquet Club
Singles
(7) Ben Davis (MT) vs. Roger Ordeig (ETSU) at 10:30 a.m. CT
Ettore Zito (MT) vs. Alejandro Gomez (UK) at 9 a.m.
Matthew Langley (MT) vs. (5) Jesus Bandres (ETSU) at 1 p.m.
Marlon Brand (MT) vs. Miguel Cortez (LB) at 7:30 a.m.
Doubles
Brand/Davis (MT) vs. Daniel Hernandez/Oliver Strecker (LB) at 1 p.m.
Langley/Zito (MT) vs. Vasily Eremeev/Justin Kirstein (TTU) at 2 p.m.
Dickerson/Edwards (MT) vs. (8) Tom Jomby/Anthony Rossi (UK) at 2:30 p.m.

Goodfriend Tennis Center
Cameron Dickerson (MT) vs. James Crawford (TTU) at 7:30 a.m.
Forrest Edwards (MT) vs. Jimmy Roebker (XU) at 10 a.m.

Follow the Blue Raiders on Twitter @MTAthletics for continued updates.